Golden Ticket

  

 The Luke 11:9 series: The Golden Ticket

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"Golden ticket" is a metaphor for an unexpected opportunity or fortune to something priceless better than anything you dream of.

In Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, our Golden ticket to Heaven whose price was paid by Christ our Redeemer, don't squander this precious gift.

Act 1 Scene 1: The Coveted Red Carpet 

For some getting a personal invitation to the Oscars is the pinnacle of fame. The crowning glory is if your invite allows you to come on the Red Carpet toward the end of the opening ceremony, abuzz with photographers, TV reporters and gawking fans. 

Act 1 Scene 2: The Prestigious Golden Buzzer

We've all seen artists, winning the Golden Buzzer and getting overwhelmed with ecstasy; clearly, they are carried away by the applause, and all their hard work has been validated. But this feeling is fleeting. Next week, someone else will be on that stage trying to claim their 15 minutes of fame.

Act 1 Scene 3: Investiture by a King or Queen

A personal invitation by Queen Elizabeth II or King Charles III for the OBE, a lifetime achievement award, is a crowning glory for many - to be awarded the Order of the British Empire is a rare event that people wear proudly for the rest of their lives. But such awards fade with time.

Act 2: Kingdom of Heaven

So what's wrong with Act 1 - Just this, everything is in vain. 

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What profit has a man from all his labour In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. [Ecclesiastes 1:2-4]

Jesus said, "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" [Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36] 

Far better than anything in Scene 1, is an invitation to the eternal  Kingdom of Heaven. 

 

In Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, our Golden ticket to Heaven whose price was paid by Christ our Redeemer, don't squander this precious gift. Let that sink in for a moment ... if you were baptised you have the Golden Ticket.

The price for salvation has been paid by the blood of Jesus on the Cross, there is no dress code, no need to finagle your way into Heaven ... all you need to do is believe in the Gospel and live by his commandments "Love your God with all your heart. And love your neighbour as yourself" [Luke 10:25-28, Mark 12:29-31, Matthew 22:37-40]

Heaven is not a fleeting experience, it is eternal glory, but sadly like so many things we get for free, we never truly understand the intrinsic value of our Golden Ticket, instead we get bogged down with futile mental gymnastics asking questions to which there are no answers and finding excuses not to believe in the Gospel or the institution of the Church.

The devil knows that the easiest way to prevent the faithful from going to Heaven is to have them not believe in God. French writer Léon Bloy said, "The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows." Sadly, the greatest tragedy of mankind is to refuse to believe in redemption paid by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. 

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is sufficient.” ― Stuart Chase

“O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts" [Psalm 95:7-8, Hebrews 4:7]. Thomas Merton has this very incisive metaphor of sealing wax and our very soul, in his book, 'New Seeds of Contemplation': “Our Souls are like wax waiting for a seal. By themselves, souls have no special identity. Their destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life, by God’s will, to receive, at their death, the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ. And this is what it means, among other things, to be judged by Christ. The wax that has melted in God’s will can easily receive the stamp of its identity, the truth of what it was meant to be. But the wax that is hard and dry and brittle and without love will not take the seal: for the hard seal, descending upon it, grinds it to powder. Therefore if you spend your life trying to escape from the heat of the fire that is meant to soften and prepare you to become your true self, and if you try to keep your substance from melting in the fire—as if your true identity were to be hard wax—the seal will fall upon you at last and crush you. You will not be able to take your own true name and countenance, and you will be destroyed by the event that was meant to be your fulfilment.” 

Suspend your disbelief but don't leave it to the very last to validate your Golden Ticket, for no one knows what tomorrow holds. No one, except God, knows the day or time of your passing. [Mark 13.32-37]

True Discipleship needs probabilistic thinking

Let's analyze the game of life where we use our free will to deal with the randomness of life and how this it relates to discipleship in Christ. 

Deterministic thinking aims for a predictable outcome where there are no unknowns. In the game of Chess, there are no hidden moves therefore supercomputers can be programmed to run all possible what-if scenarios and beat even the best Chess Grandmasters. Pure skill - no external uncontrolled factors like the weather etc. By extension, humans tend to live their lives using the Prosperity Gospel, if I do x, y and z then I will get such-and-such outcome. But this is human folly, sheer vanity.

Probabilistic thinking as in the game of poker has an uncertain outcome that depends on luck (the cards you and your opponents draw) and skill (what you and your opponents do with those cards). This requires a different approach to the Prosperity Gospel and is similar to discipleship in Christ where we play by God's rules using our skill to make good choices based on true love despite not controlling how the others will react or even what the outcome will be. With God's grace, our chances of winning the game of life and reaching Heaven are possible, even if there are pitfalls and setbacks along the way, we are guaranteed resurrection and eternal life in Heaven. Knowing the end game, true discipleship in Christ frees us to enjoy the Game of Life, instead of constantly trying to figure it out on our own.

Footnote

This series of posts, which I call, 'The Luke 11:9 Series', is an attempt to verbalise various aspects of my Catholic faith as revealed in Scripture; topics include Destination Heaven; Golden ticket; God's Grace; Seeds of Love; Mary, did you know?; Feel the love of God; Love your neighbour as yourself, The Good Shepherd; Receive the Sacraments often; Eucharistic Adoration; Communion of Saints; How to pray; Role-playing Scripture; Mary, Help of Christians; Understanding suffering; Forgiveness; Gratitude, the life-changing attitude; Life after death; One Body of Christ; and Hearts ablaze. I sincerely hope it helps you in your faith journey. Always turn to the Holy Spirit when you search for answers to your questions, because Luke 11:9 says, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."